Tech News 2Night 105 (Transcript)

Tonight, Google gobbles up a satellite imaging company, are you ready for 'socal droning', and the E3 conference day two!

Tech News 2Night is Next!

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This is Tech News 2Night Episode #105, for Tuesday June 10, 2014

This episode of Tech News 2Night is brought to you by NatureBox where you can order great-tasting, healthy snacks delivered right to your door. Forget the vending machine, and get in shape with healthy, delicious treats like Whole Wheat Lemon Figgy Bars! To get 50% off your first box go to naturebox.com/twit. That’s naturebox.com/twit.

I'm Sarah Lane, Let's get right to the Tech Feed!

Google just bought Skybox Imaging for $500 million in cash. Skybox makes 90 second videos from its network of satellites as well as sub-meter mapping images. It points the satellite at specific spots to provide analytics about how they change over time, such as monitoring agriculture, modeling insurance by checking in on assets, informing commodity traders with updates about oil storage, and tracking ships and container activity in ports to analyze supply chains.Google says acquiring the company will help, “keep our maps accurate with up-to-date imagery. Over time, we also hope that Skybox’s team and technology will be able to help improve Internet access and disaster relief — areas Google has long been interested in.”

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It’s been two years since Ebay launched its Ebay Now local delivery service back in 2012, after paying $75 million for a shopping startup called Milo. Now VentureBeat is reporting the company might be shutting the service down, citing anonymous sources. Not only are there some competitors in the space, such as Postmates, Google, and recently Uber, but in April eBay fired its team of ‘valets’ and now uses third-party couriers. Back in September of last year, eBay claimed the service would launch in London “early next year.” In October, Deb Sharkey, VP of Local at eBay, said the service would be in 25 U.S. cities by the end of 2014. An eBay spokesperson now says “We are focused on supporting eBay Now in its current markets (San Francisco, San Jose, New York, Chicago, and Dallas), and we are not announcing any new market expansions at this time.”

Speaking of local.. Reuters is reporting that Amazon plans to launch a marketplace for local services from handymen, babysitters, to birthday clowns. Amazon is said to want to compete with Yelp, Angie’s List and brick and morter retailers like Home Depot and Lowes to connect customers with service providers. This would be a further expansion of their current business model, selling products, to include servicing products as well.

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In other amazon news, the company pushed an update to its iOS and Android Kindle apps, and now lets you switch to the Audible version of a book you're reading with a single tap, as long you’ve paid for the audio upgrade of the book you’re reading. Audio upgrades start at $0.99 per title and go up to $3.99 or even more for popular books.

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Cisco Systems released its annual Internet traffic forecast today, and is estimating that internet traffic will double in five years,with most of the traffic coming from video. Currently internet video accounts for 78% of all traffic and in four years may reach 84%. This is due to the rise of video sharing sites like YouTube, but also streaming video, video on demand, and services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go, and others. The number takes into account the rise in popularity of 4K and ultra high def video. Cisco expects traffic to surge from 15 exabytes per month in 2013 to 37 exabytes monthly in 2018.

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Coming up, are you ready for "social droning"? we'll tell you about one company's grand drone communication idea.

and up next, we'll chat with Brad Charkiss from PCWorld about all the goodies at day two of E3.

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[Segment #2]

Brad Chacos, Senior Writer PCWorld

E3 day deux-

- Playstation (from last night). Tell us about the new games? Any gems out there?

- And Sony announced more than games, their Playstation original show ""Powers"". When is it coming, who can see it? Any more original shows in the works?

- Also annouced PlayStation TV for $99.

- Playstation Now. Open beta will begin July 31 in Canada and the U.S.

- Nintendo. What are they doing with Zelda? The also announced Splatoon. And what is Amiibo?

[Kicker!]

Finally, you know what we need more of? Social drones. A company called Fatdooor has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a product called the Skyteboard. The idea is to offer collapsable and safe quadracopters that can help people who live near each other communicate better. Neighbors can fly around in drone swarms, launch a neighborhood watch program from the air, and even fly cupcakes to each other. At least that's one of the examples the company uses. Pretty sure nobody's gonna do that. Or maybe I have just really bad neighbors. Fatdoor wants to raise $300,000 and sell each Skyteboard for $1,099. Fatdoor used to be a social network for neighborhoods that shut down a few years ago. Now, they're getting on the drone bandwagon.